Barrett balks at paying part of $424,000 backdrop

Milwaukee County officials recently hit on a way to cover part of the cost for one of its huge backdrop payments to a retiring worker.

Ask the city to help foot the bill.

But Mayor Tom Barrett says he is having none of it.

“It’s certainly not going to happen, as far as I’m concerned,” Barrett said in an interview. “There’s no way we’re going to bail that out.”

Last month, Marian Ninneman, head of the county pension system, sent a letter to city officials asking them to pick up 10% of the lumpsum payment and the monthly pension being paid retired county worker Marilyn Booker because she worked for the city from 1979 to 1981.

Booker, who spent nearly 25 years as a paralegal in the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office, recently received a lump-sum payment of $424,450 under the county’s backdrop provision created under the highly lucrative and infamous 2001 pension deal. Booker is receiving a regular pension of nearly $28,000 a year, which is paid out monthly.

Backdrops are essentially bonuses paid to veteran workers who stayed on with the county past their retirement date. The public uproar over the six- and sometimes seven-figure backdrops led to the forced resignation of thenCounty Executive F. Thomas Ament and the ouster of seven County Board members. One of Ament’s top aides was convicted of misconduct in office.

“Due to the fact that Ms. Booker has commenced her retirement benefit, we request that this matter be expedited,” Ninneman wrote on Dec. 14 to the city.

But Barrett said this week that he was “flabbergasted” by the county’s request, calling the move unprecedented “as far as I know.”

Essentially, he said, the county is trying to hit up Milwaukee residents twice for Booker’s backdrop.

“I don’t know where this came from,” Barrett said. “The city taxpayers have already contributed once because they are residents of the county. To ask us to contribute a second time is pretty offensive.”

Under the county’s request, the city would make a single payment of $42,445 to the county and contribute $233 a month toward Booker’s pension.

But Barrett said it is not the city’s responsibility to help pay county workers’ sizable backdrops.

“My view is we’re going to pick up 0% of any backdrop ever,” the fourth-term mayor said. “It takes a lot of chutzpah to ask us to contribute to this.”

On Monday, Bernard Allen, executive director of the city Employees’ Retirement System, sent a letter to Ninneman acknowledging that the city and county have a reciprocity agreement on workers’ pensions. But Allen wrote that agreement was adopted 15 years before the lucrative backdrop incentive was approved by the county.

Besides, Allen wrote, Booker’s backdrop was earned as part of her work for the county and such a benefit was not a part of her monthly retirement payment. Allen concluded by saying the city would be happy to pick up 10% of the monthly payment for Booker’s pension.

Barrett emphasized that he was not criticizing Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, even though he oversees most county operations, including the retirement program. The mayor said his dispute was with officials at the county pension program.

But Ninneman declined to comment on the mayor’s remarks, referring questions to Abele’s office.

Abele said in a statement that he shared the mayor’s concerns “for our taxpayers and for our retirees.”

“We are working to get more information on this situation, and I look forward to hearing from our friends at the city so we can find a solution together,” Abele said.